We are entering the time of year when we are overwhelmed with zucchini, when the beans are getting a little big before we can get them off the vines, and the tomatoes are ripe and juicy. Here are a couple of ideas for things to do. I'm sorry this website we choose for the blog doesn't yet provide a print option.

Beans: the Mulberries farm beans this year are a good variety that keeps their succulence even after getting bigger. The beans inside are delicious, too. I just cut or break them into 2 inch pieces and cook them with the beans inside. They need to cook a little longer but they will be tender even if you don't "stew" them. The simplest thing to do is saute some onions and tomatoes with (or without) garlic, fresh or dried herbs, salt and pepper and add the beans, cover, and cook until the beans are tender (approx 20 minutes). It won't hurt if you forget them and they go longer, and they might be tender sooner, if you check.

My favorite way to cook them is with Indian spices. Prep the beans by cutting into 1 or 2 inch pieces. Heat oil or ghee and add 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, one chopped jalapeno or other pepper, and a tablespoon of minced ginger (or use a tablespoon from a jar of minced ginger, or in a pinch use ginger powder but add it a little later). Stir around for a few minutes. Add the beans and two or three potatoes cut in wedges. Mix in 1 tablespoon ground coriander, 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin and the same of turmeric. You could also sub in a commercial curry powder instead. Add salt to taste and stir around some more. Now add chopped fresh or canned tomatoes. Cook on medium-low with a lid on until everything is tender. Finish off with lemon juice to taste (1 or 2 tablespoons) and a sprinkle of gram masala (or not).

Beets: If you got beets this week, they are really good with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, chopped mint, and feta cheese. Something about this mix is special.

Basil: Another special mix is a simple green salad (or add stuff) with your regular vinaigrette (my standard is 1 part red wine vinegar, 3 parts olive oil, honey, Dijon mustard, and salt--I mix it all in a jar except the oil, which I add in glops and intersperse with vigorous whipping with a round-handled whisk that I can rub between my palms to get a good momentum going---this comes together fast). Then add sliced fresh basil and a few walnuts and it tastes like a pesto salad.

Zucchini: Maybe you went out and got Indian spices for your beans. Here's another great recipe. Boil a potato until tender and cut it into bite-size chunks. Then heat oil in a pan and add 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, and if you have them, any or all of the following -- 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds, 1/2 teaspoon kalonji seeds, and 1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground fenugreek seeds (best fresh but I sometimes use the powder even though it loses its aromatic quality pretty quick--if you do this add later with ground spices). They should sizzle but don't let them burn! Then add 2 tablespoons minced ginger, clove of garlic, (or not) chopped chili pepper (or not), 1 tablespoon ground coriander, and a teaspoon of turmeric. Stir this around. Add a couple of chopped onions, cook until golden, then add a couple of pounds of mixed summer squash cut into bite size pieces, maybe two or three depending on their size. Cook for a few minutes. Add fresh or canned chopped tomato. Add chopped mint if you have it. Add salt to taste. Cover the pan and cook until crisp-tender, maybe 10 minutes. Add the potatoes and cook to blend the flavors. Fresh ground pepper is a good finish.

See the New York Times for a story and some recipes for green smoothies from Martha Rose Shulman. We agree, green smoothies are one of the best for energy. We put more greens in ours because we really like the flavor! But a little goes a long way. These are really creative ideas. I'm looking forward to making the one with cumin and cucumber, reminiscent of an Indian lassi.http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/02/drink-your-greens/?action=click&contentCollection=Europe&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&region=Marginalia&src=me&pg

I had the thrilling experience of (inadvertently) making butter the other day. I was whipping heavy cream (Kilgus farm brand) and I went too far and it started to separate. A friend and customer of ours had mentioned that she makes butter by putting raw milk cream in a jar and shaking it. So, I put my curdled-looking stuff in a jar like she said, and shook it, and lo and behold, a lovely lump of golden butter formed. I poured off the whey and put it in the fridge and we ate it with bread and it was the best butter I ever had!!

Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes. Here is a simple thing to do, if you have a roaster oven on your back porch or terrace, or if you have air conditioning. Cut up a bunch of fresh tomatoes, Romas would be great. Put them in a baking dish, drizzle with olive oil, kosher sea salt, or any kind of salt, throw in a few whole garlic cloves, and roast for a couple of hours. Good on egg dishes, toasted crusty bread, pasta, or as a base for salsa or tomato sauce.

MJ has been blanching tomatoes, peeling them, and putting them into a bag and freezing them. Faster than canning but easily used i

This creamy-yet-virtuous gratin of greens is crowned with crunchy homemade bread crumbs tossed with nutty-tasting brown butter. To make bread crumbs, remove the hard crusts from baguette or other rustic bread, cut the bread into cubes, and pulse in a food processor until the crumbs are the size of granola. Make ahead: The gratin can be assembled up to one day in advance. Allow the gratin to cool completely before covering it with plastic and storing it in the refrigerator. Add 10 additional minutes to the baking time.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray an 8-cup shallow baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Bring a Dutch oven or large pot of salted water to a boil. While the water is coming to a boil, tear the kale leaves away from their tough center rib. Discard the ribs and roughly chop the kale leaves into bite-size pieces. Add the kale to the pot and cook, stirring frequently, until the kale is tender, 6 minutes. Drain in a colander, rinse with cool water, and squeeze the kale to extract all of the water; set aside.

In a small sauté pan, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter over medium heat. Cook, swirling the pan frequently, until the butter turns chestnut brown, about 45 seconds. In a medium bowl, combine the browned butter, bread crumbs and thyme; set aside.

In the Dutch oven used to cook the kale, melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter over medium-low heat. Add the leeks and cook, stirring frequently, until they are tender and translucent, 5 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant, 45 seconds. Add the cream and bring to a simmer. Add the kale, nutmeg, cayenne and salt and pepper to taste. (Easy on the salt; there is plenty in the parmesan cheese.)

Pour the kale mixture into the prepared gratin dish. Sprinkle with the parmesan cheese and then the bread crumbs. Place the gratin dish on a baking sheet and bake until the sauce is bubbly and the bread crumbs are golden brown, 25 minutes.From Ivy Manning

A number of our customers have asked me about green smoothie recipes. Honestly, I've been postponing experimenting with these because they really didn't seem that appealing. However, thanks to feeling a lot of joint pain recently, I've joined the growing club of what appear to be almost fanatics for green smoothies. People claim that they have cured just about every ailment known to humans. A friend of ours undergoing chemotherapy says they turned her life around by making her feel better (more energy, less nausea). Another friend claims they cured her of recently-diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis. People also claim that you start craving them once you have had them for a day or two and I'm finding that to be true. They are strangely satisfying, invigorating, and centering. It's as if they are healing something from the inside-out. Kind of like a breath of fresh air, or that first glimpse of the ocean.

I've attached a recipe that I downloaded from the Vitamix website, so you can get a "flavor" for the options. If you sign up for their newsletter you can get a table with a list of mix and match options. They're pretty basic, though, so you can make your own. In the first column list the greens. They list 2 cups spinach, 1 cup kale, 1/2 head of romaine lettuce, or 1 romaine lettuce heart, 3/4 cup of raw broccoli, and 1 small head of bibb or Boston lettuce. Please be sure to add turnip green, mustard greens, beet greens, collard greens, and parsley to their list of greens you can use. In the second column they have fruits including apples (1), bananas (1), grapes (1 cup), oranges (1), pineapple (1 cup), and berries (1 cup), or veggies, such as carrots (1), celery (2 stalks), and cucumber (1/2 cup peeled or unpeeled). In the third column they have 1 cup of either water, soy milk, yogurt, or fruit juice. Almond milk would work too. Raw beet and fresh ginger are also good (both are said to have very beneficial health and healing properties).

Using the recipe below, I kept leftover smoothie in the fridge tightly covered for a day and it was fine. I wouldn't keep it longer than that because of oxidation. I think the lemon helps with preserving the smoothie for a bit. (Note: if you're using cabbage, drink it right away, immediately, and don't save it. You'll see why if you try it. Eeiuww.)

I'm also experimenting with the best time to have these in terms of food combining. Ideally you'd have it as an in-between meal snack, I think, but I had one with breakfast and so far so good.

Meanwhile, here is my favorite recipe so far, in part because it's so simple. You can double this for about 3 or 4 servings.

Hi, friends. We are so happy that the hard frost is holding off a little longer. It allows the greens to grow so vigorously that they are simply glowing. They are healthy and happy and they will make you healthy too! Red Russian kale and turnip greens are still growing on the farm. We also have romaine lettuce and green peppers, comfrey, lemon verbena, and parsley.

Check out this website: www.whfoods.com. I really liked it and I copied the following regarding turnip greens. For max nutrition, they recommend the following: Cut greens into 1/2-inch slices and let sit for at least 5 minutes to enhance their health-promoting benefits and steam for 5 minutes. (I didn't know about letting them sit, although I did know that was true for garlic).

* The noticeably bitter taste of turnip greens has been linked by researchers to its calcium content. On an ounce-for-ounce basis, turnip greens contain about 4 times more calcium than a much less bitter-tasting cruciferous vegetables like cabbage. Even in comparison to mustard greens, turnip greens contain about twice the calcium content. High calcium content is not the only reason for the noticeable bitterness of turnip greens, of course. But it may be an important contributing factor. While the commercial food industry has sometimes tried to breed out the bitter-tasting constituents from turnip greens, this practice doesn't make sense if you want to maximize your nourishment from this cruciferous vegetable. A much healthier approach would be the use a recipe and cooking method that brings out the delicious potential of turnip greens in a flavor-blended way. * For total glucosinolate content, turnip greens outscore cabbage, kale, cauliflower, and broccoli among the most commonly eaten cruciferous vegetables. That fantastic glucosinolate content brings with it some equally fantastic health benefits. The glucosinolates in turnip greens are phytonutrients that can be converted into isothiocyanates (ITCs) with cancer-preventing properties. All cruciferous vegetables have long been known to contain glucosinolates, but it has taken recent research to show us exactly how valuable turnip greens are in this regard.

If you have a recipe for turnip greens that you think is successful, I'd love to hear about it. I'm interested in figuring out how to use these amazing greens.

For a Halloween party this year, we made a rice salad with brown rice, garbanzo beans, chopped carrots, chopped cooked kale, dried tart cherries, and toasted cashews, and tossed the whole thing with a dressing made of spices (turmeric, coriander, cumin, and garam masala) sauteed in ghee, and lemon juice. It was good and also looked nice (we called it pond scum salad to comply with the theme of the evening, after the bits of kale, but you could name it something a little more conventional).